This invention relates to cleaners and cleaning articles. More particularly, this invention relates to a disinfecting and sanitizing article.
Disinfectant and sanitizer compositions generally contain germ-killing chemicals of many different types and combinations with the specific intent of killing targeted pathogens. Some of these compositions are phenols, quaternary ammonium chlorides, glutaraldehydes and iodines. These formulations may contain surfactants generally of the non-ionic nature if cleaning properties are also desirable, and water to dilute the germ-killing chemicals to a safe user level. Other miscellaneous additives may also be used, such as perfumes, dyes, wetting agents, phosphates, silicates and solvents, to accomplish specific uses. These products can typically be offered in highly dilutable concentrations of up to one part of disinfectant and sanitizer to 256 parts of water. They may also be purchased in ready-to-use concentrations.
These types of products have to show complete kill of specific pathogens as required by the EPA to be registered for sale to the public. This kill ability is based on accepted laboratory tests under controlled environmental conditions, and kill rate of each pathogen is measured in contact time, which can vary from a few seconds to 20 minutes or longer. Also, the pathogens under conditions in laboratory testing are not contained in hard to remove biofilms such as are formed by dried blood, food grease, saliva and body fluids, which are typically found in actual use conditions in hospitals, nursing homes, restaurants, and many other sources of contamination. Biofilms are organic films or conglomerates under which pathogens can be located.
Disinfecting and sanitizing cleaners are useful for preventing the spread of harmful bacteria. They are usually sprayed onto a surface and then wiped with a towel. Many existing products must be sprayed several times to ensure that the disinfectant and/or sanitizer contacts the harmful bacteria or pathogens on the treated surface for a sufficient minimum contact time. In addition, many of these cleaners must be rinsed from the treated surface since they are toxic.
Disinfecting and sanitizing cleaners typically contain large amounts of alcohol or other solvents which, disadvantageously, results in rapid evaporation from the treated surface so as not to provide sufficient contact time to ensure complete kill of the pathogens, or to fully penetrate the biofilm deposited on the surface being disinfected and sanitized. This latter problem is especially insidious because germs breed underneath the biofilm and in the biofilm, as well as on the surface of the biofilm. Therefore, a cleaner which only works on the surface of a film is not able to thoroughly disinfect and sanitize, and when bacteria remains on the treated surface, it begins to produce an odor. In addition, such cleaners are ineffective even on biofilm surfaces because germs are not exposed to these cleaners for the required minimum contact time to assure complete pathogen kill.
Another disadvantage with the present methods of disinfecting and sanitizing surfaces is that they often require a number of steps. In fact, for currently available disinfectants and sanitizers to be effective, the surface must first be precleaned. For instance, simply spraying a surface with a cleaner and then wiping does not fully disinfect and sanitize. Therefore, a disinfecting and sanitizing process may require first cleaning a surface, next spraying a liquid composition onto a surface and rubbing the sprayed liquid with a towel, then rinsing the cleaner off the surface, and finally drying the surface with another towel. In addition, for the process to be truly effective, the surface must be kept wet by the cleaner, such as by re-spraying, to ensure that the disinfectant and sanitizer contact the bacteria for a certain minimum time to achieve complete pathogen kill. In addition to the numerous steps required for the present methods of disinfecting and sanitizing surfaces to be effective, spray-type systems currently available have the additional disadvantage of allowing low viscosity liquid cleaners to run from the surface area to be treated onto other surfaces which one does not want exposed to the cleaner. Furthermore, for current systems to actually penetrate a biofilm layer, they must utilize abrasive materials which can also scratch the surface being disinfected and sanitized.
A further disadvantage of current disinfecting and sanitizing systems is that many have limited disinfecting and sanitizing properties. For instance, the systems may kill only certain subclasses of bacteria. In other words, the systems may not have fungicidal, pseudomonacidal, tuberculocidal, bactericidal, and virucidal properties all combined within one system.
Thus, these conventional disinfectant and sanitizer solutions have not proven to be effective in actual use conditions versus controlled laboratory environments. The three main reasons for their ineffectiveness are failure to completely remove the biofilm that contains the pathogens; insufficient contact time with the pathogen to complete a 100% kill; and the use of unsatisfactory cleaning towels that are necessary in current usage of disinfectant and sanitizer products, and are used to remove the applied disinfectant and sanitizer solution from hard surfaces. Because the towels are not saturated with disinfectant and sanitizer solutions to kill the pathogens which they absorb, they can actually spread infectious pathogens to other surfaces during the cleaning process by initially retaining absorbed pathogens into the towel and then releasing them onto other surfaces which are wiped.
There is, therefore, a need to provide an article which effectively disinfects, sanitizes and deodorizes organic debris by breaking a biofilm surface and disinfecting and sanitizing underneath the film without the use of abrasive particulates. There is also a need for a one-step disinfecting and sanitizing article which is safe, portable, convenient to use, and has multiple disinfecting and sanitizing properties. There is a further need to provide a system of cleaning pathogens that will achieve increased contact time with the pathogens and will thus result in a 100% kill. In addition, there is a need to provide a disinfecting and sanitizing article which is able to disinfect and sanitize a surface and absorb the pathogens therein without spreading unwanted pathogens to other surfaces.